5 things Trump did this week while you weren't looking

The headlines flew fast in Washington again this week, with President Donald Trump’s lawyer and Stormy Daniels appearing in a New York courtroom, Trump himself launching a Twitter war with his former FBI director and the revelation that high-level talks with North Korea’s rogue regime had already begun in secret.

You probably missed it beneath all that commotion, but the Trump administration also kept up its pace of important policy changes, continuing a quiet crackdown on Chinese companies and the rollback of Obama-era policies, including those on drone exports. As a bonus, to watchers of the White House whirlwind, Trump directly contradicted his own administration’s position on Chinese currency manipulation. Here’s how Trump changed policy this week:

1. The White House makes it easier to sell armed drones overseasIn 2015, the Obama administration for the first time allowed U.S. companies to export armed drones, a win for the industry, which had previously been allowed to sell armed drones only to Britain. But Obama also imposed strict regulations on those sales, including limits on selling the kinds of armed drones the U.S. often deploys overseas, like the Predator or Reaper.

On Thursday, the Trump White House issued a new memo replacing the Obama-era guidelines and directing agencies to issue new rules that would make it easier for commercial companies to export drone technology. The administration intends to eliminate some Obama-era restrictions on drone sales, including for the first time permitting the commercial sale of drones with a payload capacity of up to 500 kilograms and capable of flying up to 300 kilometers. It also intends to reclassify drones with laser-targeting systems as “unarmed,” which would loosen up the export restrictions on those.

The move was cheered by the aerospace industry, which has long argued that U.S. policy hurt only America, pointing out that armed drones were still proliferating as Israel and China moved in to fill the market void left by the U.S. But human rights groups slammed the move, saying the Obama-era policy was already too weak and that the policies in the new memo, once enacted, will lead to the spread of weapons systems that will only cause greater suffering around the world.

2. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge gets a step closerWhen Republicans were rounding up votes for their tax reform bill last December, Senate leaders knew they could have trouble getting the vote of Lisa Murkowski, the independent-minded Alaska senator who helped sink health care reform. So they quietly attached to the bill a provision—unrelated to the tax code—that Murkowski had long fought for: opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.

This week, the Interior Department took the first step towards allowing such drilling, starting to draft an environmental assessment on drilling in ANWR. The move is just the first step in a long process, including five upcoming public meetings. There will be many more steps along the way. In fact, while Congress directed Interior to hold at least two oil-and-gas lease sales in ANWR, the deadline isn’t until 2024. Still, the process has begun—and Murkowski voted for the tax reform package.

3. The Commerce Department continues to target ChinaAfter a couple high-stress weeks, the U.S. and China haven’t yet followed through on threats to impose steep tariffs on each other’s major exports, temporarily reducing Wall Street fears of a costly trade war. But that doesn’t mean the Trump administration has stopped slapping Chinese firms with new restrictions.

First, on Monday, the Commerce Department banned U.S. companies from doing business with a major Chinese telecom company, ZTE, for seven years, including blocking the export of parts critical to ZTE’s operations. The move came after U.S. authorities determined that ZTE had lied about bonuses paid to its employees who were previously found to have violated U.S. sanctions.

Then, on Tuesday, Commerce launched a new investigation into the import of Chinese steel wheels; U.S. producers allege that their Chinese counterparts are dumping the product into the U.S. below fair market price and unfairly benefiting from Chinese government subsidies. It’s not clear yet whether it will lead to trade sanctions—the investigation is just a first step—but it represents another prong in the Trump administration’s piecemeal crackdown on China.

4. Treasury declines to name China a currency manipulatorOn Monday morning, Trump lashed out on Twitter at Russia and China for “playing the currency devaluation game,” picking up on a common line during his presidential campaign, when he promised to name Beijing a currency manipulator if elected.

Just one problem with Trump’s tweet: Three days earlier—late last Friday, after our weekly edition had published—the Treasury Department released its newest list of currency manipulators, and neither China nor Russia were included. In fact, Treasury didn’t label any country a currency manipulator, and it hasn’t done so since 1994, when China was last granted that ignoble designation. The truth is that the currency manipulator label does not come with specific repercussions, so successive administrations have declined to use it. Still, Trump’s Twitter accusation provided a remarkable contrast between his own beliefs and the official position of his administration.

5. SEC introduces new rules for financial professionalsIn 2016, the Department of Labor issued a new rule that required financial advisers to act in the best interest of their clients, as a way to prevent self-dealing and protect small investors. This so-called fiduciary rule was fiercely opposed by the financial industry, which appealed to Trump and his political appointees to roll it back.

That hasn’t exactly happened: The Department of Labor has repeatedly delayed compliance dates for certain parts of the rule but hasn’t repealed it altogether. This week, though, the financial industry got a bit of good news when the Securities and Exchange Commission entered the debate by proposing its own, weaker rule designed to crack down on conflicts of interest among financial professionals. The SEC rule would be broader than the DOL regulation, which applies only to tax-advantaged retirement accounts. But it would also come with weaker enforcement tools, leading to criticism from Democratic SEC commissioners who say it would do little to help the small investors whom the fiduciary rule is intended to protect. (One Democrat on the Commission still voted in favor of the proposed rule, though he said he would not support a final version without revisions.) Financial industry groups applauded the new rule, saying it struck the right balance between consumer protections without over-burdening brokers.

The public now has 90 days to comment on the proposal. Meanwhile, the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule isn’t dead—at least not yet. The agency is considering whether to appeal a court ruling last month that vacated the rule.